[trends] Learning 5 in 5 : democratization of non-mass learning

The last of my '5in5' predictions for learning trends we'll see happen over the next 5 years doesn't sound very sexy, but will have a major impact.

5- Non-mass learning for the masses

What is it about?
Education is widespread now, touches the lives of about every child (and programs are in place to reach those we haven't reached yet), and is even regarded a basic right. Education hasn't always been massively available like this, maybe only for the last couple of centuries. The success of the democratization of learning has been in adopting 'mass' mechanisms: eg. one teacher informing its cohort. My prediction for the last 5in5 is that technology will now democratize the 'upper level' of learning activities that were up till now only available for the happy few to enjoy. I'm thinking of the expensive and exclusive domains of (executive) coaching, feedback assessments, stretch assignments on the workfloor, personal conversations with world-class experts, job rotations, etc. These forms of developmental activities suffer from their current 'business model' where they are either delivered via personal 1 to 1 contact, or short in supply (how many strategic initiatives you have available for your management population to go nuts on?) Technology can and will connect beyond expensive time-and-place constraints, and will also break the silos of the individual organisation to allow for the scope effect. So expect to see affordable coaching for everyone (half-automated, via web sessions, maybe even by volunteers at the other end of the world), continuous 360 feedback gathering services, and a lot of content-related services where the raw material is free but the added value in the selection/curation, contextualisation and general sense-making.
Learning from content is very widespread and easy now. Next, expect the same for learning from eachother.


Sign of the times:

• Check out Rypple, a site about social feedback and performance goals. Quality (developmental) feedback is a necessity for every worker. They used to have a large free section, but currently their free account doesn't allow for much. Let's hope their recent acquisition by Salesforce won't shut down the free account altogether. Then again, that creates a spot in the market for others... (anyone listening? :) ) Did anyone check out WorkSimple?
• Check out your local bookstore and count the number of business books on coaching and mentoring. The topic has never been so hot, or in reach of so many people before. If you don't like to go to your bookstore right now (which I can understand, you are probably just filtering your blog feeds inbetween meetings, right?) go see Bersin's blog post on 'Give the gift of coaching in 2012'.
• Triple Creek's open mentoring platform wins a Brandon Hall award (which are like the Oscars for learning). I find their 'openrank' algorithm for matching mentors and mentees very interesting...

Yes? No? Like? Not so much? What does it all mean, dear reader?